Gerard Moreno’s career hasn’t been as easy as other’s. He arrived at Villarreal aged just 18 but after playing for their C and B teams, he only managed to get 19 appearances for the first team before being loaned to Mallorca and then sold to Espanyol for just 1.5 million euros. He impressed at the Catalan side with 39 goals in 118 matches and Villarreal bought him back three years later for 20 million euros.
Since returning to his youth club, Moreno has been in excellent form, hitting his peak last season with 20 goals in 37 matches in all competitions. These performances won him his debut with Spain and he has six caps and three goals so far. In this tactical analysis, we will look at Moreno’s unique playing style that has taken him from the Spanish third tier to the National Team.
Player overview
Moreno is a left-footed attacker with decent size (180cm / 5’11’’) but not especially physical as he’s not very strong and lacks some acceleration when he’s completely stopped. He does have some change of pace once he’s moving and is well-coordinated, so his pace is good both on and off the ball. He also has good agility and can move well in tight spaces.
He usually plays between the lines or from the right side, with lots of freedom to move from side to side and up and down. Moreno tends to come to the right-wing or the right half-space and push his attacking teammates usually Chukwueze and Alcácer to central positions. Even when playing as a striker, he doesn’t run in behind very often, leaving that job to Alcácer. Moreno prefers to receive to his feet or make late runs into the box as he has quality and technique, excellent understanding of the game and goalscoring ability.
In his heatmap below we see he covers a lot of ground, especially on the right side of the pitch. With this positioning, it’s difficult to call him a striker, or at least he’s not a classical number nine.
Striker, midfielder or winger? His role in Villarreal’s attack
This season, Moreno is playing even closer to the right-wing than before. He has always been some kind of second striker who tended to come to the left to cut inside and use his best foot and this season he’s taking that position more than ever and pushing Chukwueze, a classical inverted winger, to the striker position.
He often starts as the right-winger, and even if he likes to come inside and play in the half-spaces, he still hugs the touchline when he has to, providing width and an option to switch the game. By doing this, Moreno helps his team to start new attacks with quick long balls when they have reached a dead-end on the left side.
